1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computing devices and software, and more particularly to managing a connected standby state for a computing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Battery operated devices, such as portable computers and smart phones, rely on battery power when not connected to source of external power, such as an AC source. Modern portable computing devices may be capable of simultaneously running many power hungry applications and components, such as disk drives, communications radios (WiFi, WAN etc.) displays and others. Power conservation, even in the face of these power consuming programs and components, remains a technical goal since the need for more frequent battery recharges can reduce user satisfaction.
The inventors have recognized one known technique used for battery power is to place the computing device into a connected standby state. The connected-standby state can be described as periodic waking up of the computing device, restoring the basic state required to establish network connectivity and allow various applications to access their remote servers and update data on the local device as well as the remote state. Conventional connected-standby control algorithms use a few fixed battery threshold levels to guide their behavior, which means that until the battery charge goes down to some critical level, the control behavior is exactly the same. When the battery hits the critical level, the behavior changes rapidly to only minimal periodical network connectivity before shutting down completely when battery discharges to an “alarm” level. The main problem is that the control algorithm remains the same throughout the wide range of battery charge levels and other environmental circumstances.
The present invention is directed to overcoming or reducing the effects of one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.